GCC Sprint - TriathlonSprint

Got up to my place in line, and waited for the guy to say "Go!" When he did I started my watch and took off. I decided to take the first 50m easy and use that as my warm-up. I didn't want my HR going out of control right off the bat. Before I got to the end some guy passed me right away. Great. But he was flying. I kept swimming along, and by 50m I caught my first swimmer. I passed her as I ducked under the lane lines and pushed off of the wall. Pretty soon I was passing quite a few people, and I was hanging back in my swim effort. Just tried to stay smooth as possible. My goal for this 400m swim was 8:00. After 200m we had to get out of the pool and run to the other side to finish the next 200m (in the pics it's more clear). After I got out I checked my watch and I was at 3:56. Perfect!

The run between pools killed me! I don't know why, but I couldn't catch my breath. Probably because I was used to swim breathing and still getting warmed up. I dove into the other side and kept going. While pushing off of the wall I smashed my right foot, just below the pinky and ring toe. That didn't feel great, but I kept going. The 2nd person to pass me (and only other person to pass me) was some lady in a blue bathing suit. She wasn't much faster, but was trying hard to get by. So I let her by and proceeded to draft her. Yay me! Let her do the hard work. I stayed in her bubbles for most of the rest of the way.

During the swim Zac said I passed about 8 people or so. I know I only got passed by 2. So that's a major improvement.

I got out of the pool a little over 8 min. The timing mats were quite a ways away, so run time was counted in the swim until I could cross the timing mat.

Turn around better at the walls when doing a serpentine swim. Maybe practice going under the lane lines on my own. I need to smooth this out a bit.

So the chick that passed me in the pool parks it on the exit of the pool. I said "excuse me" as I was booking and on my way to T1. She then decides she should start running. I finally got around her and got into T1. Oh, and my HRM strap must've loosened or something because it was halfway down my chest. I had to struggle to get it back up where it belonged, as I really wanted to get HR data for the bike and run. Come to think of it, this was the first time I had swam with a HRM strap on. Oops.

They screwed up the setup of the transition area. Usually it's 1-way traffic. But they set it up to swimmers coming in and bikers going out were using the same entrance. So you had to be careful of traffic. I ran to my pit space (sorry...motorcycle racer in me) and got everything on. I had to make a concious effort to put my number belt on, as this group required it on the bike. Most of the other sprints I've done don't.

Got my bike and ran out of T1. There was a gal on a MTB right in front of me. She stopped to get on her bike, but I kept running. As soon as I was up to speed I made one final push with my left foot and did my flying cyclocross mount onto the bike. Zac got a good pic of it this time.

Tighten HRM strap. T1 wasn't as fast as it usually is, but I can fix that over the season. That was the point of doing this race...figure stuff like that out again.

The course wound around the parking lot with a bunch of strange chicanes (again...motorcycle racer talk). I was stuck behind the girl on the mountain bike. She was swerving and had some unpredictable lines in the corners. I was busy getting myself re-dressed trying to get my HRM strap up under my swim top. Got that where it belonged and got my number bib on right. Now that I was dressed I could concentrate on biking.

As soon as we got out of the parking lot and onto a street I shifted gears and passed the girl on the MTB. I had to cross the cones to do it, as there wasn't much room. I had no idea where the course went, other than I had to do 3 laps. For the first lap I kept it in an easy gear and spun my legs fast. I found out this is why they want you to keep a high cadence. Works out pretty good. I got settled and kept spinning along, and soon I was passing people on the bike.

Sure enough, each lap we had to go back in and do the parking lot section with the strange chicanes. On the 2nd loop I used this time to get my gel opened and get ready to eat. Then after I got out of the parking lot I ate half the gel and got quite a bit of water down. One thing I messed up was putting Gatorade in my aerobottle instead of water. Definitely need water up front next time. So this girl in a blue shirt decides to pass me while I'm eating, as does another girl. No biggie, I figured after I was done I'd catch them. Sure enough, I was able to get on a straight section and back into my aerobars and passed both of them. They both sped up trying to catch me, but I had already shifted another gear and was making a gap.

On the 2nd loop I saw a girl lying on the ground in one of the corners. She lost it big time. The corners were a bit rough, so on those I stood up a bit and moved my weight back. On the smooth corners I was able to pedal through pretty hard, and gained a lot of time on folks that way.

On my 3rd loop I finished my gel, and got more water down. I sped up on this loop, trying to negative split the bike. Towards the end I passed a guy on a road bike who was wearing a red shirt. His bike sounded awful! Something in the drivetrain was griding bad. So he then passes me back and slows down as we head into the parking lot. I knew I'd be able to dismount off the bike way faster than him, so I sped up to give myself room.

Water in the aerobottle, Gatorade in the bike bottle.

Saw the bike dismount line and timing mat, and unclipped my left foot. Then I swung my right over the seat and did my flying cyclocross dismount. Zac got a good pic of this one too. Hit the ground in a full run and ran over the timing mat. Zac yelled "great dismount!" and some guys watching said "Now that's the way to do it." I pass so many people heading into T2 this way. Hey, I need every little bit. ;) Sure enough, the guy in the red shirt was way behind me.

Got into my row and there was crap everywhere. I had to lift my bike over wheels and stuff because the racks were too close together. Got my bike racked, bike shoes off, running shoes on, and grabbed my hat and run water bottle. Off to the run, and it was freaking hot by this point.

Rack my bike closer to the exit. But not knowing the flow of the race probably didn't help with figuring that out.

The run wound through parking lots and the Glendale Community College campus. I started out shuffling, just trying to move forward. I was forcing myself to not walk this race. I wanted to run the entire thing, no matter what. It was well over 90 degrees by this point, and I was roasting. I decided to take my run bottle with me, which was good because I poured most of the water on me. I also took water at the aid stations.

The run is the worst of the 3 sports for me, and I'm a slow runner. The heat wasn't helping. I was shuffling along and checked my HR and it was 187. Ugh. I was hardly moving and was already at redline. I wanted to negative split the run like Mike Ricci's notes said, so after the turn-around I picked up the pace a bit. This time I was actually jogging. The last few hundred yards of the run were the worst. I felt my HR getting higher, and was starting to enter the puke zone. So I backed it off a bit. I felt like I was running hard, when actually I was shuffling according to the pics.

I made it to the finish line, and grabbed water. It was 11:30am at this point, and I got to the shade right away and drank water and poured water all over me. I was overheating bad. I probably should've taken in some salt tabs on the run, but I had no idea we were going to be that far behind schedule. I figured I would have been done by 10:15am at the latest with a start time of 8:41. Not getting into the pool until 9:30am was torture.

This was my first hot weather run, so that really slowed me down. I finished at a total time of 1:34:36, which was 5 min over my projected time. I need to get conditioned to the heat a bit more. It takes me about 3 hot workouts before my body is acclimated to working in the heat again. After that I'm fine.

Run more. Definitely do some hot weather runs before the Tempe Oly on 5/21. That race is going to be freakishly hot. Practice with salt tabs on the run before that race too.

After I got some water I ate a few oranges and some bananas. Got a little bit of bagel down me as well.

I picked up my bike stuff, and snuck into the locker rooms to get a shower. It felt so good! I was catching a flight out of Phoenix at 4:22pm, so this was the only chance I had to shower. After I got cleaned up and got my stuff put away, we hit a Subway for some sandwiches. Felt a bit better after eating and getting a soda.


Definitely running. I think I'm going to focus on that over the next few weeks. Definitely the heat, and I'm going to get some hot weather workouts in. I think the Tempe Oly will probably start sooner in the day than this race did.



These people really need to get started earlier in the day during this time of year. I think they waited until all of the kids were off of the course before starting the du, then they started the tri. They could have a few people running the show to get things going sooner. Firecracker tri in Tucson has a kids tri, and gets done way sooner than this race did. These folks could learn a thing or two from them. I had to have my bike racked by 6:30am, and didn't even start until 9:30am. 3 hours of wasted time.

Transition area could have been laid out better. Swimmers and bikers were sharing the same entry/exit, and there were a few collisions.

This race did have timing mats, but no mat out on the bike course to make sure everyone did 3 laps. They said they used to mark people on the bike, but they didn't this time. Zac saw quite a few people cheat laps by only doing 1 or 2 laps. So the race times are going to be jacked up. Cheaters like that really get me steamed. Do 3 laps like we were told over and over and OVER again. It's not like they didn't know. Anyways, they should mark people on the bike laps or just have a timing mat out there on the course or something to make sure people aren't cutting laps.